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Wildfires scorching Alaska's interior

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Smoke has hurt air quality even in areas like Fairbanks where no fires have occurred

(CNN)An area the size of Connecticut has burned in Alaska this year, the state said. That's 3.1 million acres, a loss that comes during one of the hottest periods in decades.

The state set a new record for the earliest day with a temperature above 90, when the mercury hit 91 in the town of Eagle on May 23 -- 30 degrees hotter than the average high temperature in May, according to the National Weather Service.

Apart from charred landscape, smoky air is affecting even Alaskans who don't live close to where a fire is raging, said Rick Thoman, a climate scientist for the National Weather Service in Alaska. A Fairbanks resident, Thoman said the air quality has been so bad that advisories to avoid the outdoors have been issued.

"It's quite nasty," he said. "This is not chamber of commerce weather."

Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Melting polar ice caps – The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Drought – In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to a new report by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Wildfires – There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Coral reefs – Scientists say the oceans' temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.

Pollen allergies – Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? Louisville, Kentucky.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Deforestation – Climate change has not been kind to the world'sforests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. University of Colorado researchers have found that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Mountain glaciers – The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Endangered species – Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Animal migration – It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.

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Photos:11 ways climate change affects the world

Extreme weather – The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a 2013 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.

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"Given the number of acres that have burned, we will be fighting poor air quality until the snow comes in November," he said.

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Though fires tend to burn more frequently in Alaska because there are relatively few people to fight blazes across so much land, there's a notable increase in the number of fires each year in the past two decades, he said.

"There's a very strong correlation between ... early summer temperatures in May and June and total acreage burned," he said.

The Alaska Interagency Coordination Center said Wednesday that acreage losses exceed even the worst in more than 10 years.

The summer of 2004 "carries the dubious distinction of being the largest fire season in Alaska history, with 6.7 million acres burned," the center said. But 2015 could trump that record if the pace of fires keeps up.